Tuesday, July 07, 2015

Created by the bestselling SF novelist Jerry Pournelle, THERE WILL BE
WAR is a landmark science fiction anthology series that combines
top-notch military science fiction with factual essays by various
generals and military experts on everything from High Frontier and the
Strategic Defense Initiative to the aftermath of the Vietnam War. It
features some of the greatest military science fiction ever published,
such Orson Scott Card’s “Ender’s Game” in Volume I and Joel Rosenberg’s
“Cincinnatus” in Volume II. Many science fiction greats were featured in
the original nine-volume series, which ran from 1982 to 1990, including
Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, Philip K. Dick, Gordon Dickson, Poul
Anderson, Jack Vance, John Brunner, Gregory Benford, Robert Silverberg,
Harry Turtledove, and Ben Bova.

THERE WILL BE WAR Volume IIII is edited by Jerry Pournelle and John
F. Carr, and features 16 stories, articles, and poems. Of particular
note are “Hide and Seek” by Arthur C. Clarke, “The Spectre General” by
Theodore Cogswell, “The Myth of a Liberation” by Truong Nhu Tang, and
“Silent Leges” by Jerry Pournelle.

THERE WILL BE WAR Volume IV is edited by Jerry Pournelle and John F.
Carr, and features 21 stories, articles, and poems. Of particular note
are “The Cloak and the Staff” by Gordon R. Dickson, “Interim Justice” by
William F. Wu, “Psyops” by Stefan Possony, and “No Truce with Kings” by
Poul Anderson.

I find it interesting, in the light of history, how much Jerry and some others saw the USSR as the evil empire that would destroy poor democratic America if we didn't build this missile system or that defense system.

I also found the comment in one of Jerry's introductions about how much the Soviet Union fills its subjects' minds with propaganda. It seems that the same goes on here in the US.

Thirdly, two of the stories are very much in the vein that humans will be subjugated by aliens and were probably chosen by Jerry because they reminded the readers how the Evil USSR was just waiting to conquer the kind and gentle USA.

Now, I very much enjoyed reading Jerry's other stuff, and found Riding the Red Horse to be very good.

These are most excellent books. I still have my original paper copies circa 198x/9x, so I don't need to buy them again, but it is very good to know they are available to recommend to others or replace in case of loss.

These books are still excellent reads and not just the stories. They are rich with the hopes and fears of the men of that day. The political stuff is still worth reading even though the USSR is tits up.

I find it interesting, in the light of history, how much Jerry and some others saw the USSR as the evil empire that would destroy poor democratic America if we didn't build this missile system or that defense system.

And given what we learned of the Soviets after their fall, there was nothing to prove that was not the case.

Mr Pournelle had another influential work called "The Strategy of Technology" written a couple of years earlier. If you're not familiar with it, you should read it. The short of it is, him and his fellow co-authors suggested that the Soviets could be beaten by getting them into a technology race that they could not afford.

Gorbachev has said that one of the main reasons for the fall of the Soviet Empire was their inability to keep up with the pace of technology development. They just couldn't afford it. Yet they had to try to attempt it specifically because of the American missile defence programs that could potentially destroy the delicate balance of power maintained by the MAD doctrine.

Simply put, "The Strategy of Technology" dealt the Soviets a lethal blow they couldn't recover from.

I also found the comment in one of Jerry's introductions about how much the Soviet Union fills its subjects' minds with propaganda. It seems that the same goes on here in the US.

Yes.

Ask any ex Soviets who've emigrated to America, and they'll flat out tell you it's all the same.

It's funny, in a sick and twisted way; the communist countries are becoming more liberal and the democratic countries are becoming more authoritarian.